Is Christmas a religious or secular celebration in your family?

We celebrate christmas as a way of remembering that there was once a day when Christ was born to redeem men from their sins. We don't welcome santa (satan) in our celebration because he is an impostor!

Christmas is completely secular in our house. There is no mention of Jesus or god, although I think we have a few angel ornaments left on our tree. We celebrate the "spirit" of the holiday--all the good things about giving and family togetherness and good will towards all. And Santa, but we don't go all out. We don't spend insane amounts of money on our kids. Originally I was only going to spend about $50 on each of them but we had some extra cash so they are each getting about $100 worth of stuff. So far that has come out to 1 large gift each and 3 small/medium gifts and some stocking stuffers. We have 4 kids so it can get expensive but we don't focus on the gifts. It is more about helping each other and passing down traditions.

Not for my family. I use christmas as an extension of the holiday from its pagan roots -- Yule. The winter solstice. Which is about hope, family, and the fruits of your struggles (gifts and feasting). We used to do Santa, but don't anymore because both my brother and I have figured out that its just our parents doing it lol. But no..for my family, christmas is just another holiday. An excuse to have fun and see the rest of the family =)

Traditionaly the orthodox church does not have the santa and all that so the whole celebration is all about Jesus. We have special dinner when we invite baby Jesus, Mary and God for dinner we have rituals and things that we do. We concentrate on the family and sharing. We take gifts to churcj and pray for health. We burn fire to welcome Jesus. We sing songs and give money and small gifts (fruits and nuts) to the kids. Now that I live in australia we still do all of that but we dont exclude santa all together (as we dont in macedonia as well) but santa can come any day he wants from 31 dec to 6 th January. (not that my son belives in him)

Historically, gifts were originally exchanged at Epiphany in January - the day the wisemen came. And in Europe, gifts started to be exchanged on the feast day of St. Nicholas which was in early December. And Santa Claus word originwise is Saint Nich'las ran together and later became Santa Claus. NOT "satan" scrambled. In areas of the country that had a lot of German immigrants, stockings are still filled on St. Nick's Day that is around the 5th of December with fruit, small gifts, and candy. When I was a kid, we celebrated Christmas as the birth of Christ religiously and secularly, it was a day to get together with the family and give thanks like thanksgiving. We also exchanged gifts/got stuff from Santa but the focus was that Santa was a reminder about giving and being generous with others without expecting anything in return. Today, now that I am adult, the holiday is a spiritual one. We do give gifts to some people but do not expectg anything in return.

I'd say that I look at it as a secular holiday, but not necessarily a giftfest. "Giftfest" just seems to be a bit too far--I buy people presents because that's part of the holiday, but also because I enjoy it and want to get them something they'd like. My grandparents, parents, and some other family members celebrate it as a religious holiday, but they don't completely drop the food, gifts, and (certain) songs aspect. I have some cousins who've grown up with the "there is no Santa" thing, and I think it's kind of sad. I've never thought of it as "lying to kids" and I don't remember finding out to be any horrible, "I can never trust adults" moment. (And I was the kind of kid who really liked writing to Santa and picking out cookies I thought he'd like)